Second album for the Danish power metallers, "Darkness
With Tales To Tell" exhibits overall better songwriting that their
debut - but then again that was to be expected. ;) Overall the band doesn't
sound like "just another power metal band" so that's kind of refreshing
in a sea of clones. The singer's voice is quite distinctive and may not
be for everybody - I found myself having a hard time getting into it (I
still haven't...) The best songs here are the ones that go easy on the keyboards,
which are just overdone in some of the songs. Keyboards are becoming a plague
in metal music which, I must say again, should be guitar-driven, not keyboard-driven.
Keep that stuff in the background where it sounds best. Anyway, when the
keyboards are discreet as they should be, we are treated with some very
catchy guitar solos, even some crunching guitars in the more aggressive
passages. Thankfully the drummer doesn't overdo the bass drums like so many
power metal drummers do and I think the songs benefit from that restraint.
Most songs are more than 6 minutes in length, with a couple over the 8-9
minutes mark. Most of them are pretty fast-paced with a couple of ballads
and "semi-ballads" in the mix.

Overall a very good sophomore release, better
than their debut and worth it for power metal fans. My only wish is that
a future release will put less emphasis on the keyboards. I'm not sure I
can get used to those vocals though... <